From: gabriele renzi <surrender_itRemove@...>
Date: 2006-07-30T01:45:06+09:00
Subject: Re: to_i vs. to_int

Ico ha scritto:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a class which instances can be represented as integers. What is
> the difference between the to_i and to_int methods, and when is which
> form needed ?

short names (to_x) are for common programmer use.
Long names (to_xyz) are there so that ruby can do some implicit 
conversions between things that can basically be threated as xyz.

So in your case it could be meaningful to define one and alias the other 
to it.